When Brothers Fight
by Kelyse Llewes
Summary: Al and Matti have been friends forever. But when James starts taking romantic interest in Matti, will Al let him have her knowing that Matti might get hurt because of James's roguish and playboy ways? Next Generation. Please R&R.
1. Brother, Brother, Best Friend

**Chapter One: Brother, Brother, Best Friend**

Somewhere in the distance, she knew she'd be able to see it coming up over the horizon like a submarine emerging from the ocean, but nothing happened. The closer and closer she got to those ginormous, iron-wrought metal gate ahead of her, the less she was able to see. It was bad enough that she missed the carriages because she'd fallen asleep in the train compartment by herself, but now she felt as if she were on the verge of passing out. The closer she got, the harder it was to take the next step and the worse her vision got. She reached the gate with several black spots in her vision and her feet dragging on the ground. Her hand clasped around a bar of the gate to try and steady herself, but as soon as her fingers made contact with the metal she blacked out completely.

* * *

"Give me a break, James," Al protested trying to get away. The younger brother was always being picked on, even in the safe environment of school. They hadn't been more than ten feet away from their parents when James had magicked Al's shoelaces together and ran off down the train corridor to find his friends, laughing the whole way. One would think that being seventeen and graduating school this year would mean James was soon becoming a mature adult, but unfortunately that didn't seem like it would happen anytime soon. He was a mischief-maker and a jerk. Al and Lily always got the brunt of it, being his siblings. Al briefly wondered if anything ever bothered James, truly and deeply.

James, still by his brother's side now, was hanging his arm around Al's shoulders and muttering nonsense in his ear as they walked down the hall towards the common room. Al wasn't really listening. He'd grown accustomed to James's bullshit and was immune to it now, which included listening to whatever his older brother was saying most of the time. "...rumour going around about how she was drugged on the train. But obviously you don't care about any of that."

Al rolled his eyes and glanced at James. "Care about what? I'm sorry, I wasn't listening."

"Of course you weren't. It might do you good to listen once in a while."

"Why? All you ever say is complete horse manure."

James scoffed, "Yeah right, your best friend being drugged is definitely horse manure."

"My best friend— Wait what?" Al did a double take as his brother's words sunk in.

"Ah-ha, I said you might want to listen once in a while, but no, does he believe me?"

"Cut the crap, James! Tell me what you were saying."

"Ah the Almighty Albus has spoken, and I must obey!" James was getting cocky, a trait that

Al couldn't quite tell where he'd gotten it from, but it just made Al mad.

He reached out and grabbed at the front of James's clothes and hauled him forward threateningly. Despite being younger, James and Al were the same height, Al having grown about six inches during the summer and James having stopped growing the summer before.

"Listen, brother," he ground out the words, "you'll tell me what I want to know, or by Merlin I will kick the shit out of you!"

James's cocky look faded to something akin to fear, knowing full well that Al could beat him at pretty much anything physical, including beating him to a pulp, so he didn't put up a fight. "She's in the infirmary. Someone found unconscious by the front gate. There are rumours that someone drugged her."

Al pushed his brother back as he let go of his robes and turned on his heel, destination: infirmary.

* * *

Her eyelids felt heavy, like someone was pushing them down, preventing them from opening. But she would have her eyes open. She wanted to see if she was okay. She wouldn't sit in darkness and wonder where she was without doing anything about it if she found it unpleasant. She didn't smell the dank or musty smells of somewhere like a cellar, but instead a pleasant, spice-ridden air, with a mixture of sterile antiseptic. The surface beneath her was soft, not as soft as her bed, but softer than a concrete or cement floor. She deduced, while fighting with her eyelids that she was in the infirmary in the school. She had been here a few times before, sometimes for herself while other times for her friend, Al.

As she thought the name she felt something curl around her right hand. Her first instinct was to flinch because she couldn't see the offender, but she soon realized it was just another hand. Then a voice called out to her, a voice she knew very well. "Matti? Matti can you hear me?"

Al! She tried to open her mouth to speak but it too wouldn't move. She was stuck in this conscious darkness and she hated it.

"Matti, can you shake your head? Just to let me know if you can hear me?" Al's voice sounded rather desperate.

Matti tried and she thought she managed a slight nod, but she couldn't be sure because Al didn't say anything. She then tried squeezing the hand currently clasped within Al's. There was a tugging jerk on that hand and Al sighed, "Thank Merlin. Matti I was so worried."

Matti felt a wave of dizziness overcome her and she fought back a groan, but it slipped through her body. It was a feeling of falling, a feeling of being tossed over the side of a boat and thrown into tumultuous water while blindfolded. In short, it made her want to vomit.

Al's hand was suddenly gone and another pair of hands were on her shoulders, tilting her world so she was on her left shoulder. Her mouth opened and she knew this time it wasn't to say anything. She vomited all the contents of her stomach whilst the pair of hands, Madam Aldertree's she presumed, were holding here there, rubbing her back and whispering soft assurances.

She felt her stomach lurch to a halt and she knew that it was now officially empty. The darkness hadn't subsided, and now she just felt awful, the taste of upchuck in her mouth and a feeling of fear that this might never cease. She was propped up on her side like that with a few pillows and Madam Aldertree said to Al that she was going to mix up a tincture to help Matti sleep. Matti didn't want to sleep; she wanted to wake up completely, to see where she was, and to see Al. But she didn't feel like this was going to be possible. She decided she would rather sleep than be stuck in this semi-awake state.

There were footsteps on the marble floors, announcing the return of Madam Aldertree. Matti could feel herself being propped up by Madam Aldertree and Al. "Will she be okay?" Al was asking, sounding worried again.

"She'll be fine, Mr. Potter, she just needs some rest. Whatever she was drugged with was powerful."

Matti would have blinked in surprise if she'd been able to blink at the moment. Drugged? Is this why she felt so awful? She had thought it might be the cause of some bug. But if Madam Aldertree said she'd been drugged then she probably had been. She had never known Madam Aldertree to be wrong. She felt her mouth being opened and the foul-tasting tincture slipping down her throat. She would have coughed it up for the foul taste, but she knew that would only anger Madam Aldertree.

She was laid back down on the cot and she could feel Al beside her still, his hand still touching her arm. He was a good friend. She knew he wouldn't leave until her eyes opened. She was very lucky to have him in her life.

* * *

Al watched as Matti slipped from consciousness again. He could tell because her eyes ceased to tense and relaxed, her head lolling to the side in the process. Her hand that had clung to him with little strength before was now just hanging there. She would be at peace for the next couple of hours, and for that he was grateful.

Al and Matti had been friends for a long time. If Al knew anything about life, and at sixteen he didn't know much if he were to tell the truth, he would say that somewhere in a previous life, he and Matti had also been friends. Right from the start he felt the connection to her, to wherever she was and whenever she was hurt. He briefly wondered if that intuition was disappearing when James had mentioned Matti being in the infirmary, but she hadn't felt any pain, which might have explained it.

He looked down again at her. Her orangey-red hair was splayed over the white pillow, making it seem more vibrant than it really was. The hair on her forehead was damp from perspiration and stuck to her warm skin. Al reached out and brushed the hair aside to reveal the barely visible birthmark on the right-hand-side of her forehead. He had seen pictures of her when she was younger when the birthmark had been bright red, the colour of blood. As she'd grown older the colour had faded to just a shade darker than her skin. His fingers brushed overtop of it, feeling how it was still slightly raised, though no bigger than the size of her pinkie fingernail. If she had been able to open her eyes he would see bright blue orbs surrounded by a darker ring of blue. Those eyes had always been able to see through his lies, like when he hadn't finished his homework on time and he'd tried to bluff his way through it. Matti had always known he wasn't telling the truth however.

Madam Aldertree returned to Matti's bed to speak to him. "Mr. Potter, she won't be awake for another few hours. You might as well go up to your dorm and get some rest. You can come back in the morning."

He shook his head. "If it's all the same to you, I'd really like to stay with her."

"Very well, you may use this cot," she gestured to the bed on Matti's other side, "if you get tired." She moved to turn away but before she did she said, "You are a very loyal friend, Mr. Potter. Miss Belleclair is very fortunate to have a friend like you."

"Thank you," Al replied. Madam Aldertree then returned to the small desk beyond a partition at the far end of the room.

Matti had always said that she was lucky to have him as a friend. Personally he didn't see it, probably because he thought he was more trouble at times than he was worth. But he definitely knew that without her, he would have collapsed on numerous occasions; exams, tests, Quidditch games, almost everything he could think of that was challenging to him by nature, she had gotten him through it all.

Al was lost in thoughts of Matti so when a hand clapped him on the shoulder he nearly jumped out of his skin. "What the—? James, what do you want?" He looked up to see his brother not looking at him, but looking down at Matti on the bed.

"What happened to her?" he asked.

"What's it to you?"

"Curiosity," James tried to say it nonchalantly, but there was an edge to his tone that Al didn't like. James could be so annoying sometimes.

"Well, just to make you go away, I'll tell you what happened. She was drugged on the train coming here and we don't know what it was, but she vomited the entire contents of her stomach, so whatever it was, there won't be any left by morning." At least that was what he was hoping.

James looked away from Matti to glance at his brother with the news. Then he glanced back. It was almost inaudible what he said next. "She looks different."

"Different as in ill-different, or...?"

"As in she didn't look like this last year," James's voice was almost pensive.

Al nodded his head, "Probably not, but like I said, what's it to you?" He narrowed his eyes at his brother. He'd never seen this look before, and he'd seen a lot of looks on his brother's face. This was almost too thoughtful for his brother, and instantly Al knew something was percolating in his brother's mind. "What are you thinking?" he asked.

James popped up out of his reverie and gave his brother an irritated look. "None of your business," he replied before turning on his heel and marching out of the infirmary as silently as he had entered.

Al shook his head. If he lived to be a hundred, he didn't think he would ever understand his brother.

Looking at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room, Al noticed how late it was and that he should probably try and get some sleep. He didn't want to let go of Matti's hand however. He leaned over to see past the partition where Madam Aldertree had disappeared to and saw she was no longer at her desk. He decided then to shove the other cot over so it was flush with Matti's. It didn't take much effort to move them, and when that was finished he lay down facing Matti's sleeping form and took her hand in his once again, drifting off to sleep within minutes.


	2. Best Friend, Brother, Brother, Bother

**Chapter Two: Best Friend, Brother, Brother, Bother**

Matti could open her eyes! If she was able to get up and jump for joy she would, but upon her eyes opening she also tried to move her arms, and they felt like they'd been filled with lead. She deduced that this was so because she hadn't eaten anything in more than 24 hours and she was probably very weak. But she was able to turn her head.

She turned her head to one side, discovering that she was indeed in the infirmary in Hogwarts, the decor and layout very familiar to her. She turned her head to the other side and her eyes fell on the sleeping form of her best friend. Al was curled up in a little ball, his blanket twisted around his little body to keep the cold air out. His hair was messy, but there was rarely a time when it wasn't, and his face was relaxed and free of stress, a look that suited Al very well.

She had known Al for years, and in all that time she had never met anyone so wound-up and stressed as Al. He didn't let loose like other people. He was very fixated on his studies and Quidditch, working very hard to stay on the straight and narrow. Matti had figured out a few years back that this was because of his brother.

James Potter was charming, roguish, handsome and a terrible troublemaker. Al had forever walked in the shadow of his older brother, older by a year and a bit, but he had tried his best to stay away from the crooked and battered path James was going down. Matti had seen James in many situations; school, Quidditch, home life, with his mother and with his father, and many others, and not once had she seen the more sensitive side of him. Matti always had the feeling that James was hiding behind this sarcastic and playboy exterior because somewhere deep down he had feelings that had been hurt once upon a time. Matti doubted she'd ever be privy to those thoughts however, and gave up on that one as soon as the idea popped into her mind.

Madam Aldertree appeared beside her suddenly with what looked like a bowl of broth and a slice of bread. Food! The very thought made her stomach rumble. Madam Aldertree helped her into a semi-sitting position so she could at least eat her food without the chance of choking on it, because sitting seemed to be a quite impossible task at the moment. Madam Aldertree ladled the broth down Matti's throat with such motherly care that Matti was touched. The broth also made her feel about a thousand times better. She attempted clearing her throat and felt a sharp pain jab at the back of it. So despite feeling better than before, she still wasn't her best.

She finished the broth and then Madam Aldertree moved off once again, only to return this time with an oddly shaped potion bottle and a spoon. Matti braced herself. She could feel the back of her throat closing up. She had been in the Infirmary several times before, and she knew the foul tasting potions Madam Aldertree liked to concoct. They worked all right, but boy they tasted nasty. She clenched the bed sheets with her hands, hoping that tensing herself for the attack on her senses would psych herself into liking it. It was a trick of hers and rarely had it worked, but Matti never stopped trying.

A hand was suddenly on one of her clenched fists that were balled around her sheets. She looked over and saw Al waking up. He had grabbed her hand upon seeing what was headed her way no doubt. He had known his fair share of Madam Aldertree's potions as well and knew Matti needed all the help she could get. Matti grabbed back at Al's hand just as Madam Aldertree poured the gucky brown goop onto the spoon and brought it up to Matti's mouth. Matti opened reluctantly and downed the goop in one gulp to prevent herself from gagging.

"Ugh, gross," she murmured as soon as Madam Aldertree gave her a disapproving look and walked away.

"It worked though, right?" Al said in response, sitting up on the bed beside her, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"I haven't the foggiest if it worked. She didn't tell me what it was for."

"It was probably for your throat. It doesn't feel all hoarse anymore, does it?" Al smiled.

Matti's hand flew to her throat. "Oh my god," she exclaimed, "it doesn't. It feels great. I didn't even realize. I just started talking." She was bouncing up and down in the bed feeling better than new.

"Good to know that when they drugged you it didn't ruin your sense of small accomplishments."

Al's comment was meant to be nonchalant, Matti was sure, but it jogged her memory back to being drugged and how awful that had felt being so impaired. Her gleeful demeanour immediately changed to sombre and thoughtful.

"Crap, I didn't mean to say something I shouldn't, Matti. I should have just left it alone." Al looked miserable now.

"No," Matti protested, "Don't worry about that, Al, its fine. I had just forgotten. Who would have done this to me? And why me?"

Al was shaking his head before she even finished. "I have no idea Matti. It might just have been an unfortunate accident."

"Right, blacking out at the gates and being paralyzed for upwards of 24 hours, definitely an accident." Matti looked at him with a raised eyebrow. She would never believe that this had all been an accident.

"Okay, so my accident scenario is out," Al muttered, trying to make light of the matter. Matti could tell he was just trying to be strong for her. He was always good for a shoulder to lean on, but she wouldn't have him twisting her situation into something lighter than it was.

She knew that the effects on her body that she was experiencing the other night were custom tailored for her system. There was usually something wrong with most of the other potions she was given, and her mother had figured out early on that she needed an extra additive in her system in order for all the ingredients to blend and do what they were supposed to do. The only people who knew however were her mother, father, and Madam Aldertree and the headmaster. She'd never even told Al because her mother had said he didn't need to know.

If she had been given a potion without the additive she would have been groggy for an hour, maybe two, and then she would have gone on her way because the effects of the potion would have been moot without the extra ingredient. Whoever drugged her had done it intentionally, and had known about her condition.

She let the thoughts roll around in her mind before giving up. She knew nothing could be done about it right then and there, so she might as well just focus on getting her life back on track.

"I wonder if I can leave now," she pondered out loud.

"I don't see why not," Al replied. "You seem to me to be perfectly healthy."

"Yes well, that really isn't up to you. If you'd had your way I would have been out of here last night." Matti smiled.

"Too true, but then again, Madam Aldertree does seem to know what she's doing most of the time." There was a little sparkle in his eye when he said it. He could be so cute sometimes, Matti thought, and she couldn't ask for a better friend.

* * *

Older brothers had certain responsibilities when it came to younger siblings. James Potter II knew that sometimes he was harsh on Al and Lily, but in the end, he saw that it was his duty to torture them in their youth. When he was older and had a job and had a family of his own, he would change his tune and take care of them in whatever pickle they were in.

As he thought about this in his charms class, waving his wand over and over again repeating the charm under his breath and making the small birds in front of him zoom back and forth with ease, he thought in his brotherly life, he'd only ever been truly cruel to Al. Al was only a year younger than James, whereas Lily was three years younger, only just entering her fourth year at Hogwarts. In truth, James should be more considerate of his brother's thoughts and feelings because he was the only brother he had, but it was just something he didn't give a hoot about. That's how he was.

But the look on Al's face when James had joked around about Matti being unconscious and being sent to the Hospital wing had struck a nerve, not just with Al, but with James as well. He'd seen his brother mad before, livid even, and most of the time it was because of something James had done, but never like this.

James was a bright person in general, and he knew that the only thing that would cause a reaction was intense and feverish, akin to feelings of love for another person. He'd never experienced it himself, at least not until the other night when he'd visited his brother and Matti in the infirmary. He knew it might be a bad idea to admit it, even to himself, but he was now having serious feelings for the girl who had been unconscious at the time. That, he thought, was a death-trap.

In all actuality, it shouldn't have been happening this quickly. He had known Matti for years. She'd been his brother's irritating girl friend who came over on holidays and was welcomed into his family as if it were her own. And every time he'd seen her it had never been more than slight irritation because that was the same exterior feeling he reserved for his brother. He loved his brother on the inside, but that didn't mean he had to show it on the outside. So his friend got the same common courtesy. But when he saw Matti the other night, pale against pale; her face on the white sheets of the infirmary bed, something had struck to the very heart of him unlike anything he had ever experienced.

It wasn't earth-shattering like he'd imagined love to feel like when he finally found it, though arrogant and cocky as he was, he didn't think he would ever feel that because that's who he was. It was more like a poke at his insides. Something twisted inside him and there was a strong feeling somewhere, but because he didn't know what it was, he couldn't decipher it until much later. He liked Matti. He also figured that if he didn't do anything about this poke, it would become irritating and the poke would become more insistent until his insides were in knots, sore from so much prodding.

But how did one go about entertaining these feelings when there was something even bigger in the way of accomplishing it? His brother was a big something in the way of this and James knew that Al would never agree to let Matti go out on a date with him. James' feelings didn't just stop there either. He didn't know if he wanted things to work out with Matti, but he felt instinctively that if things didn't work out, he didn't want things to go south with Al's friendship with Matti. Would getting into a relationship with Matti jeopardize her friendship with Al? James didn't know, but because he had some small semblance of love and respect for his brother, he didn't really want to find out.

His errant thoughts wandered even further as he gathered his books as classed ended and he exited into the bustling corridors of Hogwarts. He didn't believe he had even been so absentminded. He was being so absentminded that he hardly batted an eyelash when he ran right into someone, knocking them both down.

When he looked up finally he was gazing at someone with dishevelled brown hair that had fallen in, as he now distinguished, her face as she scrambled to gather her belongings together.

"Damnit, just my luck," the girl was muttering to herself. "I'm later and later for class each day and then the one day I actually fall asleep in class I get knocked over. This is just great. Peachy."

James bent forward to help her pick things up. Her hand fell on the same book that he had been reaching for and immediately she snapped it back as if she'd been bitten by a snake. Her head popped up to look at him and through a veil of long brown hair he saw a pair of black-rimmed glasses.

They knew each other at once, but never had either bothered to acknowledge the other person existed. Brea Price was a seventh year in almost all of James' classes, except for Charms. He hadn't a clue what class she had instead, but it couldn't have been that good if she was falling asleep in it.

Brea looked at James in slight awe. She deduced that there was something wrong with him. He never would have bothered to help her if he hadn't been otherwise occupied. In fact, he might just have knocked her down on purpose, and that would have been her first guess, if he hadn't reached to pick up her books with her. A guy who knocks a girl down on purpose doesn't continue to help her with the things she drops in the process.

She rose quickly and deposited her things back in her book bag. James still had the book he'd picked up in his hand. He reached out to pass it to her and she flinched back hesitantly. What was that all about? "I'm not going to hit you!" he scowled defensively.

Brea snatched back the book in his outstretched hand and replied curtly, "One can never tell with you Potter."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he growled out.

"It means if I knew what was good for me I would steer clear of you, whether you were going to hit me or not. You are bad news." And with that she huffed past him and down the corridor.

James just stared at her. Was he really that bad? He rolled his eyes. Great, Matti had gotten under his skin and now he was thinking with his feelings. This was just great.


End file.
